“An 18-year-old posted the fake Internet report that Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack, and investigators haven’t found evidence the teenager tried to profit from driving down the stock, two people with knowledge of the matter said,” David Scheer reports for Bloomberg.
“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is examining the teen’s motives after the article on CNN’s iReport.com sent Apple shares down as much as 5.4 percent on Oct. 3, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the probe isn’t public. While the investigation is continuing, the agency hasn’t unearthed any trading records that show he benefited from the drop, one of them said,” Scheer reports.
“John Heine, an SEC spokesman in Washington, and Apple spokesman Steve Dowling declined to comment,” Scheer reports. “CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin said yesterday that the cable news channel wasn’t aware of the age or identity of the person behind the iReport post. CNN doesn’t plan to review its procedures for placing content on iReport, Martin said, declining to comment further.”
“The bogus report cut Apple’s market value by at least $4.8 billion in the first hour of Nasdaq Stock Market trading before a spokesman for the Cupertino, California-based maker of iPods and Macintosh computers said the report wasn’t true. The shares recovered a bit, closing down 3 percent,” Scheer reports.
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “iWill” for the heads up.]
Someone claimed that Daniel Lyons had a heart attack?
Sick vandalism! Brody, that’s a mutilation of a public service message! I want those little paint-happy bastards caught and hung up by their baby Buster Browns!
Will he have internet access in prison?
and this report will get less than 1% of the coverage that the initial report did…
Okay, I admit — I laughed. But I think Daniel Lyons capitalized the “F” didn’t he?
Fake Steve Jobs = Lyons
fake Steve Jobs = lyin’
@PC Apologist
Yeah, that Ballmer turd is KNOWN near and far for his truthfulness. Yeah, yeah. And the Microsoft asshat that brazenly discounted the iPhone’s phenomenal success in its 5th quarter earlier this week, yeah, he’s a REAL icon of honesty.
Gawd, but I’d hate to be your neighbor and ask if I could have my lawn mower back.
Name and address please. I’ve got a can of whoopass waiting for this jerk.
Send him to rape jail.
Ballmer Heart Attack Rumor
Microsoft Shares Skyrocket!!!!
Randian – What?
fred garvin – This isn’t Fark. Let’s not go completely over the top. Stupid kid playing a stupid prank. Probably had no idea the consequence, and there was no real harm done. Hopefully it taught people to look before they leap.
So if i call up CNN and tell them the president got shot, and they run the story its MY FAULT?????
HOW ABOUT CONFIRMING THE DAMN NEWS THEY REPORT????
Where the hell is the accountability!?”!!
Its not like this kid doctored a medical report or photocopied steve jobs in the hospital.
Even if he did, its CNN’s responsibility to CHECK IT OUT!!!!
morons.
its photoshopped, not photocopied
my bad
This really shows the sorry state the Internet is in. Some people will believe just about anything they read on a random blog these days, repost it on their own site, and before you know it, it’s gone around the Internet twice all with nobody even having even checked on the initial source themselves. Stupid “journalists”. Even stupider investors. And people wonder how Wall Street crashed…
@Dirty Pierre le Punk: I love it when somebody quotes “Jaws”.
Let that be a lesson to all investors. Investing in the stock market is GAMBLING. And anything that happens to that money is FAIR GAME. If it leaves your immediate possession it’s at RISK.
Jobs could have a real heart attack. He could be hit by a bus. A terrorist attack could turn Cupertino to ash and cinders. And this isn’t true of just Apple issues, but any other stock you might buy. If you bet more than you are willing to lose, you RISK being unhappy (and poor).
Not saying that you shouldn’t invest, or that its not worth the risk. But it’s risk. And we”re seeing the financial crisis today because a) people forgot that they were taking risks, b) people didn’t think it could happen to them, c) people got greedy, d) values were created based on ‘theoretical possibilities’ and d) shite happens.
Give him a chair!
@Wee Al – thank heavens I had just swallowed and put my glass down before reading that!
@PC Apologist
“Stupid kid playing a stupid prank. Probably had no idea the consequence, and there was no real harm done….
Hmmm, what part of “The bogus report cut Apple’s market value by at least $4.8 billion …” don’t you understand?
@ The Blind Leading the Blind
Eh, no, it illustrates the sorry state “legitimate” journalism is in. People actually have greater faith in the reliability of blog sourced news than news from the major news outlets. When the public trusts some anonymous schlep over the talking head on tv or the columnist in the paper, there has been a major paradigm shift. The NY Time’s latest revenue reports only reinforce my suspicions. 2008 is the year MSM journalism died. iCal it.
Noodle-Armed Choir Boy – The dip in stock value lasted as long as the rumor did — a couple of hours. Panicky sellers mostly got right back in at the new low price, taking a profit along the way.
There was no permanent harm to the stock price, and investors who sold on a very short-lived downturn were foolish to do so. Probably the same kind of people who sell during the dip after every MWSF.
You really amaze with your arrogant stupidity. When a stock takes a dive, even on a rumor, institutional traders will have automatic sell orders in place. The stock’s value declined because people SOLD their stock on the news (in this case a false rumor), which meant that many of these investors took a LOSS. To say that “there was no real harm done” is not only evidence of your ignorance but your attitude, in the same vein as the late bitch Leona Helmsly casually sneering that “only little people pay taxes.”
And you wonder why we are so diametrically (look that up, twit) opposed to your point of view?
You’re pathetic.
CCN is also at fault for not checking sources. But we all know how they and the others (MSNBC, NDC, ABC and CBS) like to selectively report what they want. I stopped watching those scum months ago – I can’t believe what they report anymore.
Journalism is truly dead in America!
Community Service. 40hrs/wk. 1yr. At a local hospital on the Terminal Cancer Ward. Bed Pan boy. Then let him see how funny it all is.
This was a planned attack.
The innocent little boy(as some of you seem to think) attempted to seed this nasty little rumor over several websites. Mac Rumors turned it down immediately since the poster was behind a proxy.
CNN does what it always does-runs with disinformation or plain made up stuff and presents it as the truth.
“CNN doesn’t plan to review its procedures for placing content on iReport, Martin said, declining to comment further.”
This is the bad news out of this story. CNN, one of the major news sources in the US and worldwide, has no intention of verifying stories they publish under their banner.